From the liberation movement to precariat

Dear Editor,
IT must be remembered that Swapo was created as a move­ment to fight for the liberation of Namibia and to restore the dig­nity of the people of Namibia. But in the process and in the years that followed the creation of the move­ment, it was hijacked by a group of vicious hawks who turned the lib­eration movement into their profit market.
While in Tanzania and later in Zambia, the leadership of Swapo collected funds from all over the world in the name of the liberation movement. This fund did not reach the Swapo cadres as it was mostly divided between the five top mem­bers of excutive committe of Swapo.
Some of these leaders invested their money in night clubs like Kli­manjaro in Dar es salaam-Tanzania and Lagodora in Lusaka-Zambia. Some invested in filling stations in Lusaka. There were those who invested their money in cattle deal­ing. The weapon that was delivered by the Soviet Union and China for the liberation struggle to fight the enemy was sold to the Zambian rebel leader call Msala in the west­ern province of Zambian and Unita of Angola.
Between 1974-1987, groups of young men and women including myself left Namibia with the aim to get military training and return to Namibia to fight for the liberation of our country. Thousands of these young men and women never re­turned. They died at the hands of their own leaders, namely Swapo leaders.
In 1974, the first group of 390 youth including myself arrived in Zambia where we were taken se­cretly to Maheba refugee camp in western province of Zambia by the Swapo leaders. Thus despite the fact that Swapo did not have enough soldiers at the time. I wrote a letter of protest to the Swapo Head Of­fice in Lusaka demanding for our immediate release. This letter went first to the front and was read before the military parade. The soldiers were furious and sent the message to the Swapo Head Office in Lusaka demanding our immediate release. In fear, the Head Office complied. It took three weeks before we were fetched by trucks to Lusaka and ar­rived at the Swapo old farm outside Lusaka. Only a few were taken to Lusaka city.
The arrival of the Youth League leadership exposed Swapo`s se­cret of unexpected nature. Which means that Swapo was in total dis­array.
1)-that Swapo had no constitu­tion to safegard the liberation movement.
2)-that the leadership’s time in the office had expired since years back.
3)-that there was undeniable naked corruption at the top of the organisation.
4)-that there was no rule of law or regulations guiding the movement.
5)-that chaos and anarchy was running the organisation.
All these compelled the youth league leadership to demand for a party congress to be held and for the party consititution to be drafted in order to put our house in order. These demands were not received well by the top Swapo leaders. Instead they turned into a panic and in uncontrallable fury. These marked the beginning of arrests, tortures, and killings of thousands of young Namibians by their own leaders. The Swapo hatred and fury against youth league developed into a slaughter in the so-called dun­geon paranoia in Angola and left more than 5 000 Namibians dead at the hands of the Swapo leader­ship and 4 200 unaccounted for. This and this only became a stum­bling block toward the true national reconciliation between Swapo and her own people in the independent Namibia.
Swapo will never allow this bitter truth to come out to the knowledge of the families and relatives of these fallen heroes. So the bigotry con­tinued into independent Namibia. Neither will Swapo dare to tell the truth itself.
It is against this background that Swapo leaders decided to abandon the liberation struggle sprit to join the international precariat. Ever since, Swapo leaders are no longer representatives of the working class but members of international pre­cariat. Driven by hate, greed and paranoia they now exploit their own people, suck out the mineral resources and enrich themselves and their families. Many will say that Swapo has lost its vision. But the bitter truth is that the vision has never been there as far as the pres­ent Swapo leadership in concerned.
Keshi Pelao Nathanael
Stockholm, Sweden